Thursday, 28 September 2017

Asian markets mixed; fresh economic data in focus

Asian markets were mixed on Thursday, with investors turning to fresh followed a strong lead from Wall Street, with American indexes rising as new details on Trump’s tax bill were released.

Australia ASX+10.90+0.19%5,736.40OPEN

Shanghai Comp-3.09-0.09%3,342.19CLOSED

Hang Seng Index-86.21-0.31%27,556.22CLOSED

Nikkei 225+103.54+0.51%20,370.59OPEN

TSEC 50 Index-5.44-0.05%10,321.24OPEN

The Asian session followed a strong lead from Wall Street, with the top three American indexes closing higher as new details on Trump’s tax bill were released.

The Republican party presented a framework on the new administration’s tax reform on Wednesday. The framework is a result of serious negotiations between the Trump team and the GOP leadership.

The goal of restructuring the tax system is to boost the economy by leaving more cash on the table for businesses and consumers.

On the corporate side, the reform pretends to cut the current tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. According to the document, pass-through businesses would pay a 25 percent tax rate. These terms have been carefully designed to push big companies to bring profits made abroad to the United States.

President Trump promised on Wednesday that this plan is going “to bring back the jobs and wealth that have left our country and most people thought left our country for good".

As for consumers, the plan simplifies the current seven-brackets system by reorganizing taxpayers in only three categories of 12, 25 and 35 percent. Also, the standard deduction would almost be doubled if the bill gets green light.

"Tax reform is the most important thing we can do to restore confidence to this country, to get jobs and prosperity and that's why we are so singularly focused on getting this done this year," said House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday.

On the data front, no relevant data is expected in Asia or Europe. Market players will be paying attention to the releases of second quarter gross domestic product, August’s trade figures and initial jobless claims as of 12:30 GMT. Speeches from FOMC George and Fischer are eyed.

On Wednesday, non-defense capital goods orders for August showed a 0.9 percent increase following a revised 1.1 percent build in July. Meanwhile, The National Association of Realtors said pending home sales dropped by 2.6 percent to 106.3 last month.